Tag: Deuteronomy

Loving Obedience

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Journal Entry // May 24, 2022

provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three,

Deuteronomy 19:9 ESV

For the past two years, I have been working to focus on what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When I first started this endeavor, I thought I would take a year on each aspect beginning with the heart. Yet, here I am over two years on and I am still learning what it means to love God with all my heart. I’m still learning that God’s Word is full of commandments, phrases, stories, and warnings to put my obedience into action through engaging my heart. This passage is the same message that is repeated over and over throughout the Books of Moses. In order to keep the commandments of God, I must walk in His ways and I must love Him. Not one or the other. I need both.

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Fear, Walk, Love, Serve

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Journal Entry // May 21, 2022

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

Deuteronomy 10:12 ESV

What does the Lord require of me?

  • Fear the Lord
  • Walk in all his ways
  • Love him
  • Serve the Lord

And how am I to do this? With all my heart and soul.

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Heart Test

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Journal Entry // May 12, 2022

And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 8:2 ESV

What’s the purpose of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years after being brought of the slavery of Egypt by a great and powerful showing of God’s mighty right hand? I’m sure the answer is multifaceted if you do an in-depth study, but a good summation of the wilderness wandering is here in this passage. The Lord used the 40-year wandering in the wilderness to humble the Israelites. To test their heart’s desire for obedience. To know what was in their heart. This feels so familiar to me because the Lord is truly leading me through my own wilderness in order to humble me.

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Complete Destruction

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Journal Entry // May 9, 2022

and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

Deuteronomy 7:2 ESV

This charge to the Israelites as they were about to enter the promised land is a good reminder of my daily struggle and battle with sin dwelling in my heart. I don’t think that I take the call to personal holiness as a priority at times. Sure, I know this is absolutely true in the life of a believer. We should all be moving forward with personal holiness and seeking to fight the entanglement of sin in our life, but I often feel like it is a no-win situation. I come into the battle with particular sins with an attitude that I am going to fail. And sure enough I do fail. I fail each and every time because I am fully trusting in my own strength and ability to fight this battle with sin.

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